Short i /ɪ/ vs long ee /iː/

Ship and sheep, live and leave: English separates a short, relaxed /ɪ/ from a long, tense /iː/. Spanish, Arabic and many other languages have one i sound, so both come out the same.

How to make it

For /iː/, smile slightly and hold the sound. For /ɪ/, relax your lips and jaw and keep it short, a little closer to the e in bed.

22% of 35,617 scored /iː/ sounds in the SayWhat app were scored red, from at least 6,613 learners.

Lessons in the SayWhat app that train it

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